386 
to the higheft and moft complete mathe- 
matical deduétions. He, who can athx 
to his ideas figns in one language, may 
acquire and remember, by a fimilar 
application, words or figns in any other. 
Every operation, whether mental or bo- 
dily, can only be performed with fact- 
lity by exercife and habit. Our fenfes 
are rendered acute by ufe. It would be 
trite to infift on the accurate eye of the 
artiit, or the exquifite touch of the polith- 
er. Moral and phyfical caufes aét re- 
ciprocally upon each other ; the refolute 
and vigorous mind hardens the body ; 
even the power of difeafe has been fuf- 
pended, and im fome cafes wholly re- 
moved, by mental energy and exertion. 
The natural fitnefs or unfitnefs for the 
ftudy of any particular fcience, is an oc- 
cult phrafe that conveys no diftinét ap- 
prehenfion, except tothofe who contend 
for the obfolete notion of tmnate ideas.— . 
That one man fhould have beer born 
with a peculiar aptitude to logic, (accord- 
ing to the Spanifh author) another to 
grammar, and a third to aftronomy, isa 
pofition that {carcely deferves a {erious 
confutation. But it is eafy to conceive, 
that fome particular train of circum-. 
ftances might have led thefe fludents, in 
the courfe of their education, to apply to 
the fiudy of one fcience in preference to 
another. ‘* What is neceflary (fays Hel- 
wetius) in order that 
fhould seceive precifely the fame educa- 
cation ? That they fhould be precifely 
in the fame fituations and the fame cir- 
cumftances. Now this is what never can 
take place: itis evident, therefore, that 
no two perfons can receive the fame in- 
“ftruétion.”’?- The education commonly, 
though improperly, denominated that of 
chance or accident, has fo great an influ- 
ence ir the formation of every individual 
character, as to afford a futhcieut folu- 
tion for the different propenfities and 
degrees of acquirement in members of the 
fame family, feminary, or nation. . Yet, 
notwithfranding thefe particular difter- 
ences, a “general refemblance may uni-_ 
formly be traced in thofe who have been 
placed in corre{ponding fituation.— 
Fienceé national charaéter, or the tin€ture 
which is communicated to the habits and . 
opinions of large bedies of men, by the 
forms of government under which. they. 
refides. Helvetius has ftrikingly alte 
trated this truth by the examples which 
he has‘adduced of the Spartans and Je- 
fuits, who were asa body actuated but 
by one foul. The inftitution of the Je- 
fuits is more particularly in point, and 
Reply to ¥. T. on Helvetius. 
two imdiyviduals - 
[June 
proves on the fureft of all foundations, 
that of experience, the force of difcip- 
line. A Jefuit, in every part of the 
world, amidft all the phyfical variations 
of temperament and climate, was the 
fame character, having his views direét- — 
ed towards the fame end. 
When we infift on the effeéts of — 
organization, it would be worth while 
to analyfe our meaning. Man is born, 
fimply, a perceptive being, or a 
creature capable of receiving fenfation. 
The nature of thefe fenfations muft 
depend upon the external circumftances 
by which he is furrounded: the current 
of his thoughts is modified by force, for 
without external impreffion he would be 
nothing. All knowledge 1s conveyed 
through the medium of the fenfes ; whe- 
ther thofe fenfes fhall be more or lefs 
acute depends perhaps, as before obfery- 
ed of the. artift and the polifher, on the 
degree of excitement they have receiv- 
ed, or in which they have been called 
into aétion, and fharpened by ufe. This 
is exemplified in the cafe of the blind; 
the lofs of one fenfe is a caufe of the 
greater perfection and acutenefs of thofe 
which remain : not from any hidden and 
myfterious inftinét, unlefs it be that of 
felf-prefervation, but from the obvious 
neceility of fupplying the abfence of fight 
by a greater attention to objeéts of touch 
and hearing. ‘The underftanding may 
be defned—the faculty of comparing and 
judging of the various fenfations and im- 
.preflions which we receive ; and we are 
_ftimulated to do this in proportion to the. 
degree. of intereft we take in the quef- 
tion. Adverfity has been faid to be the 
{chool of wifdom—W hy is it fo > Not be- 
caufe adverfity is ‘in itfelf a good, but 
becaufe the faculties- are, by diticulty, 
roufedintoexertion. Neceffity may well 
be faid to be the mother of Invention: our 
natural love of eafe and agreeable fenfa- 
tion makes us fertile in refources to rid 
- ourfelves of pain and uneafinefs. If the 
mind fagnates and the fpirits become 
languid when that eafe is attained, or im 
what is called profperity, itis for the 
want of a fufficiently interefting purfuit 
toexcite us to action: . 
_. It would be impoffible, as propofed by 
-your <correfpondent, on the Helvetian 
{yftem, to place any being exactly in the 
-circumftances which formed a Newton, 
a. Milton, or a Shakf{peare. Many of © 
thefe circumitances muft neceflarily have 
.been of .a local and evanefcent natures _ 
‘many more too fubtle, delicate, and comte — 
plicated, to be analyzed. But were 
every 
